175 Be Great On Purpose

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SPEAKER_00 0:10

Look,

Groundhog Days And The Rat Race

SPEAKER_00 0:11

crook. I'm growing, man. Shaman John D in the building. So me really just talking about being a human, what I think down how I was living. It may be more, but I just, these are the ideas of what I think the parts of today, where you're just getting up, doing the necessary things you're doing. It's just like you're just caught in this loop, and nothing's really changing. And you got the rat race where you're trying to chase this idea of making this amount of money where you can actually like live the life you want to live. And part that I think I'm practicing now is intentional living. Like

Intentional Living Through Daily Routines

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I have a routine of things I do every single day. Uh, whether I'm sick, well, to any capacity, injuries, I have a routine that I have to complete because it's a dedication that I've accep I've accepted. So intentional living is more so doing it on purpose. You know, when I wake up, I have uh witch gears, but still practicing a lot of my routine and my day-to-day professional work. I work on my communication every single day because my goal is to give students and my colleagues the words that can help them achieve whatever they're looking for. I've gotten to this place in my life where I convinced myself that if I was younger and somebody said the right things to me, maybe I could have matured a little sooner or I could have polished a stone that I didn't know how to polish a lot sooner than I'm actually doing now. You know, I feel like if I would have learned about intentional living when I was young, I don't know what I could have created. Now I go so hard at work, I'm starting to share feedback with my students. It's like you don't want it. And you know, a lot of times they don't have the answers either. But I just want you to know, like, we are working on it. You know, like these students that I deal with, they know I come from a good place. And no matter how mad they want to be, they know I have to do my job. I give, I give physical, mental, spiritual effort that I hope that when they do leave, that they can look back in their life and be like, Mr. Lewis was really trying to help me. And I I'm that's on purpose. Like, the money that I make, it's there's no way that I'm getting paid my effort. That doesn't mean that these kids don't deserve it. You know, I go over and beyond because I know being regular will not give these kids what they need. I have to give them my all and somebody else's if possible. I I go to work with this energy every day. Although I've been tired lately because I've increased my activity in this step challenge, increased a lot, so I've been tired. But trying to use different interventions to help these students be successful, it's it's tied our hands. Like

Giving Students More Than Regular

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it's it's worn down my staff, and I have to become an administrator for my staff because these kids want to have structure, and I'm and we're trying to create these systems where where it will change the community. And it's like we're in the beginning stages of it all. But everybody's working to create this culture where kids can feel confident when they come to our school that they're gonna leave with a lot more than they came in with. And that will help them mature on the next level. Putting that type of effort in, I know that the continuous effort on a daily basis is eventually going to yield a product that we're looking for. So it's only natural for me to give my all in any way possible. Like if somebody has a suggestion on ways that I can improve in my job, I'm accepting all of it because working with other people's kids is like a privilege because we get to help mold these minds to possibly go out in the world and do something beautiful. If we're able to give them that, families will change. You know, they just have to believe that they're that important where that can happen. So the life that I live now and the intentional living in my professional life, when I get off work, I can completely turn it off. And

Turning Work Off With Confidence

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I'm gonna tell you why. I'm confident enough to know that there's nothing else I can do at this point. I can go home and be with my family and be completely family man. And I do want you to know, there are staff members that I talk to almost every single day about work, but it's nothing that is taken away from my family. If there's like a period of free time, I'll listen to it, see what I can do. But overall, this is another part of intentional living. Like everybody's responsible for cooking at some point throughout the week. We eat together, we try to go out one or two times, whether it's getting ice cream, getting a dessert, going bowling, doing something. We're trying to like we know that at some point our kids are gonna leave. And we're just trying to create as many, you know, benchmark memories where they can look back and be like, when I go home, I know we're gonna have a good time. So this part of life for me is something that I want other people to experience because I know that something can happen at any given moment now. Like, after you put so many intentional hours into improving, probably won't be on your timeline because you haven't seen it before. But if you keep working on something, it's gonna yield a product. And after you do it so much, it's just gonna be popping. One thing after another. You just have to believe in the process. So looking at Groundhog's Day, um, the rat race, and intentional living. Intentional living fulfills me like I'm not wasting my time. Like it's very rare six or seven years where I've wasted my time. I

Controlling Thoughts As Time Speeds Up

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never thought that I would be able to control my thoughts the way I have learned to. I remember when I first got on this journey and it was like, you can control your thoughts because things would just come in my head. But now, when I'm thinking is things that I've already thought about, I was gonna think about, you know, at some point. I don't just let something distract me enough to prevent me from doing what I'm doing in my head. Like, I could sit quietly and and I could have integrity and tell you that I'm probably working on something. For sure. Like, it's it comes so natural now because if you don't control your own thoughts, you'll be distracted on things that don't matter and you'll waste time. And because I know I'm I'm really big and talking about my age. I am almost 50 and I can't believe when I used to think, golly, you know, when you're young, you think time is forever because it's like tick, tick. But, you know, as you get older, you realize that it's it just goes so fast. So if you can limit the Groundhogs Day, the rat race idea, and just intentionally live to improve yourself, you will get to enjoy life differently from your counterparts. Because the difference between the happiness that I see is effort. A lot of people find shortcuts and find excuses. There's it's life has levels. That's it. That's all I can tell you. Like life, and you just it just depends on what level do you want to get to it. And I don't even know the levels of it, but I know I don't feel the way that I used

Money Lessons From Life Abroad

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to. And I remember being in the groundhog's life and groundhog's day life and a rat race life, rat race, even going over into Abu Dhabi, we didn't chase the dollar anymore, but it was still a rat race because like it's almost how can you sustain this type of lifestyle, you know, for the rest of your life? And it was like, like in my head, I just I knew I had enough time positioned financially, but that time went by so fast, and I wasn't financially aware to do what I could have done with. We appreciate the moment, but it was still that we didn't have enough information to get out of that lifestyle, even though we were making way more money, instead our mindset wasn't there yet. We had to come back here to say what happened there, and then that's how you evaluate. Once you start finding ways to reduce the mistakes you've made in your past, you don't make them anymore. And then you learn to be a better example going forward for your family or whoever's watching. So learning that now at this age is it's exciting. It is, you know?

Marriage As Best Friendship Built Daily

SPEAKER_00 10:40

Idea what I thought a best friend was, and me and my wife talked about it last night. Our views on what we thought what a best friend was. And the reason I'm just want I'm bringing this part in because I want you to show about intentional living. The intentional living that I do with my wife used to describe my best friends. She was, she didn't understand it. The people that I consider my best friends were people from my childhood. We don't talk very often. And then I realized I was like, maybe they weren't my best friends. I determined last night I I called them that because we had conversations that I just didn't have with. She understood then, but she thought because uh different reasons why people would be my best friend. Just because I saw them often, she thought that that would be my best friend. I was just like, I there's certain people that I really just enjoyed hanging out with. But as far as my best friend, I can't say that, can't say that loosely because, you know, I didn't talk to everybody that we have. She knows about anything. You ask her about anything, if she can remember, she'll be able to, she'll be able to describe how I was feeling because I got to the point where I had to be so vulnerable with my wife that if she didn't know, how would she understand? And that changed our relationship so many different ways. Like when we have conversations, they just add. It's like this this bank of conversations that you know about each other, right? If you don't do this on purpose, like you can't learn your person. Like me and my wife lived in a house, and we may have talked, like for real, once or twice a week, like outside of the fluff. And now it's like every single day, there's no fluff. Like we don't even fluff around. Like for real, for real. Like all our conversations are they used to be heavy, but now it's like the difficult conversations have become very easy to talk about because we understand why they were difficult and they're no longer difficult because we've come to these understandings on why they happen, and and then we can move on. And, you know, those are the most powerful conversations, are the ones you discover, like just because you're talking about something, and then you learn a view, and then you talk about it. Like, if you can't keep the same person, you'll be sharing bits and pieces of your life to everybody. And I think that's what it was for me. Like, after me and Kanika got married, she became my best friend, and I didn't even know it because she knew as much as I gave her, right? But she still knew more than everybody else. So she became my best friend well before I even knew it. And now that she knows everything about me, the relationship can only improve. So just think about that. Like, we're accumulating so many hours through our conversations where changing before your eyes. Because as I describe it, like it's just going to improve. I don't, I don't see why anybody wouldn't want to find a relationship like this. It doesn't, it it gives your kids great example of what to strive for. Because when when she and I like disagree or have a misunderstanding, it's way safer. It's not yelling, it's not unhealthy. And I think it gives our kids a sense that you can develop a relationship through effective communication. And as long as nobody, as long as you create rules to protect each other, you could be very intentional about really building with the person you want to be with.

Rules That Make Growth Inevitable

SPEAKER_00 14:55

I think at some point I am going to, I guess I'm doing it through podcasting, but I think I'm gonna create some type of series about, you know, what I would do to get here. Like if you're really into the idea of being like building something with a person where you can get married. How about if you guys decide not to get married? It it's not even, it doesn't matter. I'll go into this. Marriage to me is just a slowdown of process of you guys not being together. But you can build without being in a marriage. So however you feel, it's cool. But at the end of the day, you have to put the work in if the relationship is going to develop where you can maximize your entire day, including the students. I give my all, right? It's almost like I know that as long as I put in the work, the process is going to change into something beautiful, right? So I have to make sure the last eight hours of my day that I have to get the rest I deserve. I can't I haven't figured out how to sleep eight hours. And I'm not for sure how I'm supposed to do that, but I'm gonna figure it out because my day is fulfilled with a continuous process of improving that I think in the in the next few years, people are going to start really believing in themselves, where their effort is going to change the results. So just imagine this. I've envisioned what my life is supposed to look like. I don't know when it's gonna happen, but I know that if I keep putting these hours in, just like people go to become professional athletes, I'm going to become well, I already feel like I'm cold because I don't hear men talk like me. And I know y'all hear me say this a lot, but I want more men to believe that it's a fulfillment that they haven't experienced and it's worth going to get. And until I'm able to put the words together. It's like your artwork, your masterpiece. You're just working on yourself every single day. At some point, you are gonna be the coldest version. And then you're like, oh, I can get colder than that. And you just go, you're still putting that work in every single day. Communication, activity, diet, emotional intelligence, work on that every single day. The relationship that you that you create with whoever, it's gonna be a lot. You'll enjoy the journey more. I don't, I don't think you can get away from the mistakes. But if you have the right rules, your intentional living will develop something beautiful. But those rules are very important if you want a relationship to work. I'm not saying it ain't it can't work, but if you put these rules in place, it was nothing about the rat race that I enjoy because well, you know what? I could have got out the rat race a lot sooner if I just put more effort in. I think regular people don't know how much work it actually takes to be that good. Because most people aren't working on something in their craft every single day. And if you aren't one of those people, if you work on something every single day, it'll get better. That's why you gotta, if you don't write it down, how you memorizing something you haven't even created yet? You come on. We gotta be more intentional. We have to create a routine where we can see us improve through intentional work. It

Extreme Motivation And Aging Bodies

SPEAKER_00 18:35

was this YouTuber uh who did a hundred-day journey. He ended up doing uh an iron match. Watching him do that. It didn't inspire me, but I was really impressed, completely impressed, because that was some of the coldest work that I could have ever imagined. Like I think that when you can do that, now he that was an is it that was extreme. He was young enough to do it. I wouldn't do anything like that. Um, but I was completely impressed because to turn that, to turn into that in such a short period of time, it just says that you can do any and everything you want. And he was just inspired by uh thank David Goggins um because of what he's done. You know, I look, does not inspire me at all. I'm impressed because we found people that was able to push the body and show that they can get things done, but I just think it's a hard life to live when your body slows down. I just think that the aches and pains is not worth those rewards in a young age. Like I think when you get older, you like you want to still enjoy life. And I don't think anybody wants a painful last period of eight days, you know. And I just think we need to find better ways to maximize ourselves without planning from aches and pains in your body. So no hate at all. Like I said, I was I'm impressed by anybody who can find that much will to get things like that done because that's a whole different person. Completely different person to be able to do that. And once you become the different person, you like being the different person. Because the different person, you enjoy that life way better than the one before.

Closing Challenge Be Great On Purpose

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Y'all make today better than yesterday. Don't worry about anything you can't control. G A T A. Get after that action, or the action will get after you. Be great on purpose.